2010 Category Winners

Winners of an O2 Ability Category Award have gone above and beyond the level of best practice in their prospective category. We encourage you to watch the videos below, which highlight the reasons why each organisation won in their category.

Environmental Accessibility

Waterways Ireland

The nominees for the Environmental Accessibility O2 Ability Award 2010 were the National Aquatic Centre, Trinity College Dublin and Waterways Ireland. The winner was Waterways Ireland.

Waterways Ireland was established in 1999 under the British Irish Agreement and is charged with the management, maintenance, development and restoration of some 1,000km of inland waterways principally for recreational purposes. Based in Fermanagh, they are one of the cross-border bodies set up under the Good Friday Agreement, 380 staff through out Ireland, whose aim is to bring as many people as they can to the waterways and services alongside the 7 waterways under their remit: the Barrow Navigation, the Erne System, the Grand Canal, the Lower Bann, the Royal, the Shannon-Erne Waterway and the Shannon Navigation.

Waterways Ireland is committed to accessibility. People with disabilities are part of the Working Group who work on the design, construction and improvements of Ireland’s waterways and Waterways Ireland invest in the implementation of their recommendations.

Click “Play” on the image below to view the case study video for Waterways Ireland.

Customer Service

McDonald’s Drive-Thru Ennis

The nominees for the Customer Service O2 Ability Award 2010 were Dublin City Public Libraries and Archive, McDonald’s Drive-Thru Ennis and Trinity College Dublin. The winner was McDonald’s Drive-Thru Ennis.

McDonald’s Drive-Thru Ennis actively embrace the business case for disability. From the outset customers with disabilities know that they are welcome – starting with tactile pavements, induction loops, braille signage, handheld and portable menus, lobby hostesses and greeted by staff who are trained to serve customers with disabilities ensuring a good experience for customers and repeat business. Owner Kieran McDermott believes that an accessible building and services that are fully accessible leads to increased sales and a steady growth in the number and frequency of visits from groups and organisations whose members have a disability. Diversity and Disability is a cornerstone of their business growth and embracing disability is a “must do” and not a “nice to do”.

Click “Play” on the image below to view the case study video for McDonald’s Drive-Thru Ennis.

Retention and Wellbeing

Medtronic

The nominees for the Retention and Wellbeing O2 Ability Award 2010 were Eircom, Medtronic and the National Aquatic Centre. The winner was Medtronic.

Medtronic is the global leader in medical technology- alleviating pain, restoring health, and extending life for people with chronic conditions around the world. Each year, Medtronic therapies help more than seven million people.

Medtronic has a retention strategy in place, wellbeing calendar for each quarter of the year, wellbeing programme based on employee involvement and feedback, occupational health unit, long term disability insurance, training resources available for the person returning to work, pro-active in getting people back to work and an attrition rate of below 2%. The employees interviewed by the Kanchi assessment team during the on-site assessment were significant and demonstrated the breadth of services available to employees and the lengths to which the company will go to keep their best people.

Click “Play” on the image below to view the case study video for Medtronic.

Learning, Development and Progression

Dublin City Public Libraries and Archive

The nominees for the Learning, Development and Progression O2 Ability Award 2010 were Dublin City Public Libraries & Archive, Eircom and Leisure World Cork . The winner was Dublin City Public Libraries and Archive.

Dublin City Public Libraries & Archive provides a network of twenty-two services points distributed across the city with 3 mobile library services, with a staff of 350, last year recording 3 million visits, loaned over 2.3 million items and facilitated about 400,000 internet sessions. They serve the people of Dublin: readers, writers, researches of all ages of all abilities form pre-school up to PhD level.

Dublin City Public Libraries has equality officers tasked with working with new and current employees with disabilities to discuss their needs and to ensure they have all the accommodations and adaptations they require, these are regularly reviewed and they’ve seen the results in their retention rates. Funded staff education schemes for professional qualifications only use accessible colleges so everyone can avail of the courses and they have a wide range of assistive technologies, adaptations and accommodations available to employees so that everyone can participate in training.

Click “Play” on the image below to view the case study video for Dublin City Public Libraries and Archive.

Recruitment and Selection

Citi

The nominees for the Recruitment and Selection O2 Ability Award 2010 were Citi, McDonald’s Drive-Thru Ennis and National Aquatic Centre. The winner was Citi.

Citi and its predecessors have had a presence in Ireland since 1965 and was one of the first foreign banks to open an office in Ireland. The company now employs over 2,000 people in Dublin and Waterford. The company is the largest employer in the IFSC. Citi provides a broad range of financial services and products for multinational companies, Irish companies and the government and public sector.

Citi recruits and recognises the value of a diverse work force, which includes people with disabilities. Citi uses accessible websites to advertise job vacancies and works with organisations to place people with disabilities in work, which can lead to full time employment. Managers who recruit are disability confident and there is an employee mentoring program for employees with disabilities.

Click “Play” on the image below to view the case study video for Citi.

Leadership

EMC

The nominees for the Leadership O2 Ability Award 2010 were EMC, Microsoft Ireland and South Dublin County Council. The winner was EMC.

EMC Corporation is the world’s leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions. EMC Ireland, the main base being the Cork Campus, was established in 1988 with an initial pool of 22 employees. EMC Ireland today employs over 1600 professional, technical, operational, and engineering staff and has grown to over 62,600 square metres.

VP of Cork Operations Bob Savage is committed to diversity, leading by example and participating in disability training and initiatives. People with disabilities are represented in the top management team. EMC has a disability diversity circle, a work force inclusion programme and formal links with Brothers of Charity for work placements, which have lead to full and part-time employment with EMC.

Click “Play” on the image below to view the case study video for EMC.